The sequencing of the human genome has set the stage for the next major frontier in biology, the proteome, and has paved the way for the new "omics" era in biomedical research. The exploding cascade of data requires integration of bioinformatics tools for data representation and manipulation and sophisticated statistical and mathematical approaches for validating, analyzing, modeling and, finally, unifying and interpreting the myriad of "omic" data to infer biological function. The aim of the Biostatistics Training for Basic Biomedical Research (BTBBR) program, proposed by the Department of Biostatistics, Bioinformatics, and Epidemiology at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), is to train a new generation of biostatisticians who have substantial didactic and hands-on experience in the basic biomedical sciences so that they are prepared to assume key roles in this new generation of basic biomedical research. The BTBBR program stresses the integration of biostatistical theory and methods, including nonlinear systems analysis and mathematical modeling, with tools from bioinformatics to address quantitative frontiers in modern multi-disciplinary biological research. The program will capitalize on an established and successful college-wide program offering a common basic science curriculum that provides structured, broad-based didactic and laboratory training in the basic biomedical sciences at an entry level;an established biostatistics program that emphasizes integration of biological knowledge and biostatistical principles;and an atmosphere of acknowledged need for biostatistical input among basic biomedical science researchers in four focus areas in which MUSC has nationally recognized strength: proteomics, lidipomics, signaling, and neurobiology.